Google Finally Agrees to Hand Over Wi-Fi Data to European Authorities

Last week, Google enraged German authorities by disregarding a deadline for submitting unauthorized Wi-Fi data it had amassed while collecting images for its Street View service. The company excused itself by saying that there were possible legal ramifications of such a handover that it needed to review, forcing the Hamburg data protection supervisor Johannes Caspar to hint at a criminal investigation against it.

“We screwed up. Let’s be very clear about that,” Mr Schmidt told the Financial Times. “If you are honest about your mistakes it is the best defence for it not happening again.” According to Schmidt, disciplinary action is currently underway against the software engineer who wrote the meddlesome code.

Comments

All anyone has to do is search for WiFi spying and you will quickly see what you are up against. The only way to prevent the breach of personal information is to use secure apps with a secure, trusted online service like SwissDisk and... they have free accounts! There are many webDAV apps out there, some free, like OverTheAir from the itunes app store ... or the Droid and Blackberry fans can get a free for personal use webDAV app from pader-sync ... the bottom line is it's up to you to keep your personal information out of harms way... Big Brother, spys, thieves, criminals are on every corner (Google Eye is watching) so if you trust your info over an open/unsecure link then it's just a matter of time until someone out there is playing with your info and that could come at a very high cost in time and a big headache to cure